teddybear snowglobe

Donald & Daniel


July 15,1992

This is the story of Donald & Daniel's birth and the five wonderful years that they have been in my life.

twin 'A'twin 'B'

These pictures are kinda dark, but they were taken within 30 minutes of Donald & Daniel's birth. Donald (twin "A") was born at 2:03pm and weighted 4 lbs. 14 oz. Daniel (twin "B") was born two minutes later at 2:05pm, and weighted 2 lbs. 6 oz. I had to have a c-section, and did not get to see them until they were brought to my room 12 hours later.

Everything was great for two and a half days, or so we thought. I had a lot of trouble after the c-section and had trouble walking, but had gone to the nursery. None of my family (including Tim)was at the hospital yet when I took off for the nursery, and I almost passed out on the way there. When I finally made it, one of the male nurses came over to me and asked if I was ok, I told him no. He then promply got me a rocker and told me, "Nobody passes out in my nursery!" I asked them if everything was going ok with the boys, and they said the boys were doing great. So, I go back to my room thinking all was well. Everyone gets to the hospital, see the kids and decide that since the boys were doing so well they can go back home and back to work. Remember our family lived in East Texas and the boys were born in San Antonio (several hundred miles away). They go home, and Tim and I take off to the nursery. We were about half way down the hall when we saw 2 doctors coming toward us. They stopped us in the hall and asked us to go back to my room. I can't even remember what I was thinking at the time, but you can bet it was nothing like what they were gonna tell us.

They started out telling us that Daniel was doing great. Then they lowered the boom. Donald was in serious trouble. They said that the nurses had been having trouble finding a pulse in his legs and that his blood pressure was a lot lower then it should be. They said they had done an ultasound of his heart and needed to do a cardiac cath (put dye through his artery in his leg so they can see the heart better. They then went into telling us why. I'm not gonna get technical here, but his Arota was shaped like an hour glass, his Pulmonary Arteries were to big, and he had multiple VSD's (holes in his heart). His tricuspid valve is also only bicuspid. They wanted to preform surgery the next day (at four days old). The problem was...they couldn't do it at that hospital, they would have to transfer Donald to a hospital about 20 miles away. I can't remember much more about that day other than having to call our parents to tell them. None of them had even made it back to East Texas yet, so we had to leave messages about what the doctor said, and that he would be having open-heart surgery the next day. Once they got the messages, they turned around and headed back to the hospital. They didn't get back until sometime between 12-2 a.m. The only other thing I remember was being in the nursery as they were getting ready to transfer Donald to the other hospital. They asked me if I wanted to hold him, but I told them no. I told them I was afraid I'd knock something loose and hurt him. So Tim went off to the other hospital with Donald and I stayed with Daniel, tewenty miles apart.

Donald before surgery

Then I was sent on another quest. I had to get the clearence to leave the hospital I was still in and go to the other hospital for Donald's surgery. It was not an easy task. It took me until 4 a.m. to talk my doctor into letting me go. There were conditions though. I had to go in a wheelchair, laydown during the surgery, have my blood pressure taken, and after the surgery come straight back to my hospital room. I had begun to retain a lot of water, and my blood pressure was up (I wonder why!?!). I saw Donald right before they wheeled him into the OR, knowing I may never see him alive again.

The surgery went well. When they were done they told us to give them an hour to get him back to the ICU and cleaned up. They warned us that he would not be a pretty site, and that he'd have IV lines and tubes in him. That was a VERY long hour! I was shocked when I entered his room. He looked SO good! Like a total different baby! His skn wasn't purple anymore, and he looked so comfortable. The Morphine could have had a lot to do with that though!

Soccer Mom

Sign My Guestbook Guestbook by GuestWorld View My Guestbook

© 1997 mrsb27@hotmail.com

About Me | My Twins | My Mom |
My Kindered Spirit | My Dad |
My Sister & Domestic Violence |
Webrings | Free Graphics |


This page hosted by GeoCities Get your own Free Home Page